Simon Ed
01-06-04, 04:48 PM
Darn it! I hit somone last night and totaled my new front wheel :cry: I mean it looked like a Pringle (salted, not chive) Luckily neither of us was hurt but I wont get the new wheel till Friday :mad:
Commuting - 1st Accident
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The Rob
01-06-04, 05:05 PM
What the Hell happened? Hope you're none the worse for wear!
Simon Ed
01-06-04, 05:28 PM
I was coming down a slope during the fist few minutes of my commute home. Two construction guys walked across the road with nary a glance in either direction. I was keeping an eye on them and the sharp corner that immediately follows it. For some reason they slowed down and I went right into one of them. I slammed on the brakes and my Avid BBDS flipped me over! The bike whilst in mid air went into a 90 degree angle with the front wheel locked up and the frame at right angles to it. It was this I think that FUBAR'd the wheel. Its a double wall with eyelets and it is well and truly knackered. One I took it off the Bike I tried to bend it a bit, no joy (I'm 225 with nothing to sapre and life 4x a week) this thing is tough so I can't imagine the forces that were acting on it to bend it so badly. The construction guy got a sore elbow and I got a little graze on my knee. Stupidly I went ape at the guy and pushed him around a bit after I saw the damage (I have just spent $700 on the bike upgrading it) Fortunately the cops turned up (there are lots oif embassies around where I work so they are every few hundred yards) I realised that I could be looking at a 1 way ticket to the slammer for the assault (Blue eyed Satans hitting the locals is really frowned upon here :) Anyway, to my relief they got a translator and after I apologised to the guy he was cool enough not to blow it out of proportion and I let him off with having to pay for the wheel.
All in all it was a good experience of the local cops considering some of the stories I have heard. One pal of mine was jailed for riding his own bike because he couldnt prove it was his! He signed a paper that he was led to beleive was a statement that he had done nothing wrong and was about to be released. The 'translator' shafted him and they held him for over 2 days with no phone call to his Girl friend to let her know where he was!
What may have gone in my favor is that I'm a Brit (The Japs love to hate the yanks) I work for a law firm and I apologised early enough, plus it was technically his fault.
All in all I was thankful to just get home, have dinner and an early night :)
Roll on Friday! :)
All in all it was a good experience of the local cops considering some of the stories I have heard. One pal of mine was jailed for riding his own bike because he couldnt prove it was his! He signed a paper that he was led to beleive was a statement that he had done nothing wrong and was about to be released. The 'translator' shafted him and they held him for over 2 days with no phone call to his Girl friend to let her know where he was!
What may have gone in my favor is that I'm a Brit (The Japs love to hate the yanks) I work for a law firm and I apologised early enough, plus it was technically his fault.
All in all I was thankful to just get home, have dinner and an early night :)
Roll on Friday! :)
The Rob
01-06-04, 06:07 PM
Wow. All things considered both you and the other guy got off lightly in the personal injury department. Glad you and he are okay, but pity about the wheel.
Force and inertia are odd beasties. Years ago I had an auto accident that propelled my head through the windshield. I felt nothing and suffered no injury from it, however I pushed the steering wheel into the dash and folded the top of it over the dashboard with my upper lip. Blood and tissue sprayed everywhere, and how I managed not to lose teeth I'll never understand.
Force and inertia are odd beasties. Years ago I had an auto accident that propelled my head through the windshield. I felt nothing and suffered no injury from it, however I pushed the steering wheel into the dash and folded the top of it over the dashboard with my upper lip. Blood and tissue sprayed everywhere, and how I managed not to lose teeth I'll never understand.
Simon Ed
01-06-04, 06:16 PM
Thanks man,
I guess it was inevitable that I would come off considering I ride on heavily congested roads. Probaly the accident was due to the fact that I wasn't in my 'eyes in the back of my head ' mode as the first part of the ride is in a quiet area (probably why the guys didnt look) OH well, alls well that ends....er ... well :)
I guess it was inevitable that I would come off considering I ride on heavily congested roads. Probaly the accident was due to the fact that I wasn't in my 'eyes in the back of my head ' mode as the first part of the ride is in a quiet area (probably why the guys didnt look) OH well, alls well that ends....er ... well :)
LittleBigMan
01-07-04, 11:01 AM
Probaly the accident was due to the fact that I wasn't in my 'eyes in the back of my head ' mode as the first part of the ride is in a quiet area (probably why the guys didnt look)
Simon Ed, I guess I'm not too clear on how this was your fault. I realize it's best to assume responsibility for avoiding any possible accident, but is this a Japanese thing where it's ok to walk across a street without looking?
Anyway, I'm glad you're ok!
Simon Ed, I guess I'm not too clear on how this was your fault. I realize it's best to assume responsibility for avoiding any possible accident, but is this a Japanese thing where it's ok to walk across a street without looking?
Anyway, I'm glad you're ok!
Simon Ed
01-07-04, 04:45 PM
LBM,
It was his fault, I was just releived that he didn't blow the pushing around out of proportion and it was worth the $100 its going to cost to avoid jail. Beleive me, Japan is still in the 3rd world for a awful lot of things. Best way to think of Japan is like Star Wars, people have Landspeeders and lightsabres but everything else is in the 19th Century still. Public smoking (I mean everywhere, even inside supermarkets albeit in smoking sections that were clearly though out to allow the most smoke and stench of tabacco into the main area.) Banks that close at 3, charges for using an ATM at YOUR bank ATM machines have in the last 2 years become 24hr.... An attitude that they are still #1 in the world and all othes are lazy and fat and stupid. A really unhealthy xenophobic Tokyo Mayor, the KKK driving around in buses blasting Nationalistic slogans and ranting about the US and China and how poor old defensless Japan is the victim of thier tyranny.
So, from this you can see that if one of the Ble eyed Satans beats up on a local its a given (usually) that they will milk it for all they can. As posted before I was pleasantly surprised not to find myself in jail, and if the guy I hit wanted to he could have played it up to the point where they would have arested me, beleive me I kno loads of people who have been jailed for nothing. Like one English guy, jailed and put in solitary for 10 months because he wouldnt confess, this is how the prosecution here clears its cases, basically they torture until the guy gives in from lack of food and sleep. Yep most foreigners in jail in Japan die within 8 years from malnutrition. Armed forces get extra food supplied by the American Red Cross..
It's aweird place that I hop I dont have to be in for too much longer (just got a newborn and am sniffing out a different line of work badk in the UK)
It was his fault, I was just releived that he didn't blow the pushing around out of proportion and it was worth the $100 its going to cost to avoid jail. Beleive me, Japan is still in the 3rd world for a awful lot of things. Best way to think of Japan is like Star Wars, people have Landspeeders and lightsabres but everything else is in the 19th Century still. Public smoking (I mean everywhere, even inside supermarkets albeit in smoking sections that were clearly though out to allow the most smoke and stench of tabacco into the main area.) Banks that close at 3, charges for using an ATM at YOUR bank ATM machines have in the last 2 years become 24hr.... An attitude that they are still #1 in the world and all othes are lazy and fat and stupid. A really unhealthy xenophobic Tokyo Mayor, the KKK driving around in buses blasting Nationalistic slogans and ranting about the US and China and how poor old defensless Japan is the victim of thier tyranny.
So, from this you can see that if one of the Ble eyed Satans beats up on a local its a given (usually) that they will milk it for all they can. As posted before I was pleasantly surprised not to find myself in jail, and if the guy I hit wanted to he could have played it up to the point where they would have arested me, beleive me I kno loads of people who have been jailed for nothing. Like one English guy, jailed and put in solitary for 10 months because he wouldnt confess, this is how the prosecution here clears its cases, basically they torture until the guy gives in from lack of food and sleep. Yep most foreigners in jail in Japan die within 8 years from malnutrition. Armed forces get extra food supplied by the American Red Cross..
It's aweird place that I hop I dont have to be in for too much longer (just got a newborn and am sniffing out a different line of work badk in the UK)